The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 46 states have filed a lawsuit against Facebook in which they accuse the social media giant of an illegal monopoly. The FTC goes a little further, demanding that Facebook undo its acquisition of both Instagram and WhatsApp.
Facebook has been under intense scrutiny for some time now, but this is the first time that there's an antitrust lawsuit. And immediately a massive one. According to the FTC, Facebook should be split up into at least Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook took over Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion dollars, in 2014 it paid 16 billion dollars for WhatsApp. Email conversions from top executive Mark Zuckerberg would indicate that it acquired both companies in order to cripple competition and buy time.
It remains to be seen whether Facebook will actually be split up. The case still has to be dealt with and before we have a verdict we are easily a few years further on. You can bet that Facebook will hire the best (and most expensive) lawyers and lobbyists. Facebook already gave a small statement. In it it states that the takeover of both Instagram and WhatsApp was approved by regulatory agencies at the time and that reversing this decision would set a dangerous precedent. The FTC states that it has full confidence in their lawsuit and will not make any public announcements in the meantime.
(via)